Reviews

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

albycarnaby's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

hugenott's review against another edition

4.0

Read this for book club for Halloween and I really loved it. I grew up with the movie so it was a lot of fun to experience the story in book form. It did drag in some parts but I really enjoyed the writing and lead up to the big finale.

ashchin91's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

kynikoskyon's review against another edition

4.0

Ooh csm puta que la sufrí con esta novela

emsisfab's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

thasel's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

bonafidefaygo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to like this more than I did. 

While I think the book does read quite fast due to it being a hell of a lot of dialogue, it still felt far too meandering. Like it just feels like it takes forever to get anywhere or to meaningfully progress to the next stages of anything, and it almost feels like the actual possession storyline was like a B plot when it's supposed to be an A plot. 

And, as someone with a religious background who finds the idea of demonic possession to be very scary, this wasn't scary at all to me, and I think that can be attributed to the third person omniscient narrative. It just fully diluted any dread in my opinion. 

And for the love of God I was gonna scream if there was any more of the detective C plot. A HORRIBLE character and so annoying and the scenes with him investigating the homicide just completely diminished any tension in the main plot, and I just cannot for the life of me figure out why he was included or written the way he was. 

However, I did enjoy this enough. I think the ideas of guilt and redemption are well realized. The religious iconography is well rendered. And it did feel like you're reading a real story that's just been fictionalized a bit, which is what I think all domestic horror should strive. 

It just let me down a bit. But if you only read a couple horror books a year, then this would probably be a better read for you than it was for me. 

hexort's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

sammmm7's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

juan_bejarano02's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0